Noo Joisey Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Burt, and we’re joined from New York City by our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Oh, hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. How are you?

Doing well.

Thanks, you?

Good, good. You know, I went to NYU and I studied theater, so a lot of times people can’t really tell where I’m from by my voice.

But I was born in Hoboken, and when I go back there, I easily code switch into a Jersey dialect.

But I never say Joy-Z.

I’ve never known anyone in Jersey who did, except maybe Joe Piscopo.

However, I did know some people who would substitute for oy.

For example, my grandmother would call oysters Erstes.

Oh, sure, yeah.

Yeah.

Now, you can imagine my surprise when she was cooking pasta.

The first step was to bring the water to a knotty, rounded tree growth.

What’s that?

Burl.

Burl.

A burl, yes, a rounded, knotty tree growth that results in beautifully grained wood.

I could not understand, but that’s right.

She would burl the water instead of boil.

So this is sort of dedicated to my Graham, a quiz about woids, words and woids.

Now, the second thing Graham usually did was ask me to fetch from the pantry a British nobleman above a Viscount and below a Marquess.

Now, I didn’t even know we had one of those, but what was it that she wanted?

Earl.

Earl, so go get me some Earl.

Go get me some Earl.

Usually it was olive oil.

If there were leftovers, she would need to wrap them up.

So Grandma would use something that was rolled up like a flag.

What was this metallic object?

Furl.

Is that a foil?

Some tin furl, yeah, tin furl.

So many of my memories of Grandma have to do with food.

I remember a kind of roast she would make that was pork from the dorsal side of the rib cage.

She called it pork to gain or acquire knowledge.

What was that?

Learn.

Pork learn.

Loin, yeah.

Now, Grandma and Grandpa and I and my brothers and my cousins often like to play cards.

They had a book of rules they consulted to make sure we played properly.

Now, what did this book have to do with throwing an object with great force?

Hoyle.

Hoyle.

It was according to Hoyle.

Hurl.

According to Hurl.

When my family went on vacations, my grandparents often came with us.

Why did they want a hotel room that was taking a break with the intent of resuming later, as if their hotel room was a meeting or a court trial?

Let’s adjoin.

Adjoin.

They wanted adjoining rooms, my grandparents, with my parents.

I started writing puzzles freelance while I was still living at home with my grandmother and my grandfather.

After sending in my first work for publication, why did my grandmother think I needed to send the magazine something that is the opposite in order to get paid?

Something that is the opposite in order to get paid.

An inverse.

An inverse.

I had to send them an inverse.

Even back then, I was known for finding concepts that needed new words, or as Grandma would put it, I was adjusting the space between letters in a piece of text.

That’s close enough, I guess.

Kerning.

I was kerning words.

Yeah, kerning words.

She was always concerned for my safety.

If she knew I was going out, she would tell me about certain neighborhoods that I should have stated or asserted to be true.

Averd.

Averd or avoid, right.

Averd.

Now, I never had the chance to find out what Grandma’s feelings were about turquoise, but I’m sure her head or my head would have exploded.

So that’s all I’m going to say for now.

So that was from my Grandma.

Thank you.

Wow, that’s fantastic.

You know that accent with the replacing the oil has been recorded as far back as the 1920s.

But it is pretty much on the way out.

The last generation is passing on that uses it.

Yeah.

If I go back to Joy-Z, I can still come across some people who still talk the way a little bit.

They’re usually older, right?

Much older people, yes.

Yeah.

It’s about gone.

John, we really endured that.

It hurt.

Thanks, John.

We’ll talk to you next week.

Talk to you then.

Bye.

Bye.

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